Beer Guide 2014

Get your fill.

Behind a fleabag motel on the
eastern outskirts of Gresham, you’ll find it: the mythical tobacco store
with a growler filling station.

There, surrounded by
Donettes and Romeo y Julieta cigars, hangs an impressive line of tap
handles, including Worthy’s Imperial IPA, Base Camp’s S’More Stout, an
apricot cider from Bend and an India pale lager from San Diego.

Gresham
Tobacco Outlet will fill your 64-ounce brown glass jug for $9—a buck
less than at one of several bodegas offering fills just off Hawthorne. “We can’t seem to get them to send us RPM anymore,” the clerk
says of the Boneyard IPA that lands at No. 3 in our top 10 beers of the
year. “But we keep trying.”

Amazing
bodega beers were just one of the many odd and inspiring discoveries we
made while compiling this guide to every brewery and cidery within an
hour’s drive of downtown Portland. Everyone knows Portland loves beer,
but it’s never so clear as when you’re just north of the MAX line’s last
stop, standing behind a couple in matching camouflage caps as they
debate a $50 investment in the Portland-made Bräuler.

Along
the way, I realized there’s something special about Portland’s
relationship with growlers. Sure, they’re both the least expensive and
the most environmentally friendly packaging. But it’s more than that.
Portlanders love growlers because they’re big and perishable. In other
words, because they’re meant to be shared.

I’m constantly amazed
by Brewvana’s sense of community. About crackerjack brewers from Kells and Pints meeting to sniff new coffee beers out of
Mason jars at the Lucky Labrador. Or a Montavilla neighborhood house
party where Ben Edmunds of Breakside splits a five-year
vertical of Bell’s Expedition Stout with the Wildwood chef who built an
outstanding beer program at an old-school restaurant on Northwest 21st
Avenue. Or the legendary John Harris of Ecliptic showing up to watch pinot noir crushed at an urban winery near his home.

Each
time, I was surprised to see them. But I shouldn’t be. Portland brewers
get around. The secret ingredient in our beer isn’t our soft water or
farm-fresh hops, it’s all those thoughtful sips and heated debates held
over shared growlers.

Here, you’ll find a
guide to getting your fill, starting with our picks for the best beers
of the year and continuing though a dozen local cideries.
Hopefully, this guide will stay with you for a year, serving you well
wherever you find yourself with an empty jug and a long list of options.